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Oh. Mah. Glob. Lumpy Space Princess is finally here! While, yes, it seems like so much work for such a simple design, it is the work part of these creations that we love. So without a moment more, may we present to you, how we built those rocking’ lumps!

We set out to do this project like, a year ago, with several characters in mind. LSP was the only one that made it to the beginning phases before it was put on an extended hiatus. (We may have been watching Adventure Time over and over and over again…) After kicking around several ideas on how to make the model we ended up with a combo of various sized dowel rods and card stock.

Using a printed image to get the outline proportions right we glued the dowels onto the card stock and then cut it out, repeating for the other side. Polyester body filler was used to blend the seam between the dowels, and the sides were skim coated and sanded to fill the wood grain.

We needed to have the ability to make a yellow star on the finished product, so a layer of foamboard with a cutout was layered on top and the whole thing was skim coated and sanded… again.

Once satisfactory, the model was given a primer coat and sanded with finer grit paper to give the surface a uniformly smooth texture. Yeah. There’s a lot of sanding involved…

Pictured below is the second attempt at making the mold, the first one turned out badly due to a chemical reaction to the primer and the silicone. (Although failing the first attempt gave us an excellent foundation for writing about why we keep making things this way.) The model is hot glued down to the board with the sides of the mold box clamped in place. The mixed color of the silicone is completely unintentional…

Success at last! You can find my cotton candy scented Lumpy Space Princess along with LTD Galactic Color pigment in LSP as a perk on our Indiegogo, under Lumpin’ Love. With your help spreading the word and donations, we will have the space and set up to build even more awesome designs, using true artisan methods. You can check out a few other of our built projects here and here.

The single thing that sucks the most when it comes to making things is when they don’t turn out. However, I have learned over my years that failure is the number one thing that drives my motivation.

I mess up, get angry and then proceed to rock the hell out of whatever it is I’m creating. This is good. This is one of those “driving force” things I believe we are meant to develop.

So for about a year now, we have been working on building a positive to produce a silicone mold for a product I am extremely excited about. Last week while I was out of town we were able to conclude how this project would be finished and this week has been spent revving up for the release. I have poured my entire self into this final step, which included all of the marketing, photography, site development and used it as the foundation
and justification for my studio.

This product was meant to be released today as a fundraiser perk as proof that creating
something from nothing is at my core. It is who I am. It is what I do. It was meant to be a reward for so many people who continue to support me and support the idea that sometimes we need to go back to the basics in order to bring something worthwhile into the future.

Guess who failed this morning? Me.

This morning when we went to unmold our positive, the inner silicone had not cured due a bad chemical reaction with the filler material. My own fault. I will no longer be able to release this design as an early arrival perk for my fundraiser, as intended and planned.

I set out to prove (on a small scale) you can build with solely determination. The time spent devoted to your craft is worth it because you will succeed if you nurse and love the shit out of something. While in the long run, I still fully believe this, on the short term, I want to tell myself and my ideas to fuck off.

I could just get a 3D printer. I could just give up my devotion to this lost art. I could just sell out and stop working so hard.

Or

I can keep doing what I do and rocking the shit out of it. Keep moving forward and continue making things the way I believe they should be made. To keep failing and to keep telling that failure to fuck off.

Mold making is relatively small in the grand scheme of life. However, everything we do we put this much dedication into. If you aren’t going to give it your absolute best, why are you bothering? What are you trying to prove?

I am not trying to prove anything. You bet your ass though, I am going to prove everything.

So while yes, everything I have set up is all of a sudden gone, my timeline is destroyed and I let down so many people who have been excited about this for so long, I will still move forward. I will still prove that when you dedicate yourself to something, no matter how small or insignificant it might be, your determination will drag you to the finish line.

Despite being unable to show you a finished product, I am still thrilled to show you the
process. It is all about the journey, right? Honestly, at the end of the day, spending time doing what you love, no matter how long it takes, is really all that matters.

It is on this note that I am asking that you please consider donating to my fundraiser, The Lane Lab. One of the primary functions of this new studio will be an entire lab devoted to building small scale replicas and positives for molding and proving genuine craftsmanship will always come out on top. You can read more on my company history here, here, and here.

Keep on doing what you love and if you haven’t found it yet, do not give up. It’s out there waiting for you.

For Mother’s Day this year we decided to go to Sioux Falls, SD. Since it is an hour and a half long drive, the kids decided to “pack” their flannel, kittens and fanny packs, like you do.

After we ran around the mall for a bit, we decided to head over to Falls Park. Van selfies are a must.

Nine years ago, we sat together, on this very rock. I am still in shock at how fast time has flown by…

If you want to climb the rocks…you have to take a million pictures for me first.

The weather was perfect! (Which I repeated at least a dozen times.) No “burn your eyes out” sun, just milky grey skies (yes! my favorite!) and a cool breeze.

This guy. <3

After climbing all of the rocks and not busting our skulls falling into the water and landing on said rocks, we decided to walk around down town and hunt for ice cream. We found a dinosaur instead.

And this guy. There were many more sculptures although most had exposed breasts and butts and the kids didn’t want me to photograph them. Fun haters.

Candy hunting.

Next it was off to the Cinedome to see The Lego Movie…again. BECAUSE IT IS THAT AWESOME!!

To top it all off, we had breakfast dinner at “our” roadside Denny’s while we waited out a crazy storm that soaked everything outside. There were tornado warnings a few miles from our home town, so we decided to wait it out and eat until we couldn’t move.

After we arrived back home I was gifted the most awesome gifts ever. I have this thing for ’40’s/50’s era kitchen utensils and green glass. Glorious metal and thick, invincible glass..

I haven’t gotten a chance to try the waffle iron, but the mixer works beautifully!! Just like I knew it would.

So while there was no big fancy dinner plans, no vases of roses and my daughter and I wore comfy pants during our travels, we were all happy to spend the day together. Mother’s Day is a time marker for me. A moment to reflect back and look at how strong our family is and how tight our bond continues to grow. My children have a taught me to find joy in the simplest of things…like rocks, pancakes and mixers.

Right now The Lane Laboratory is 65% funded with 35 days to go!! I wanted to let all of you know that your shares and contributions are making this a reality. It took 4 years before I could even ask for your help and I thought you might just tell me to f@#k off. You didn’t. You helped me. So, Thank you.

I have been getting a few of the same emails regarding the fundraiser perks and I wanted to post some updates and reminders.

Yes, I am giving away a lot of store credit and yes, I have done the cost calculations. This fundraiser is not about profit. It is about building a space to create and right now the only way to do that is with a loan from all of you. Why wouldn’t I offer interest? It feels right.

The $3,230 dollars raised as of this morning? Yeah. Building materials are almost paid for! This is happening.

As we begin to lay out our timeline for demolition, we have already started getting ready to jack up the house to replace the plumbing. Rory will be blogging about these projects this weekend and you can find him over in Self Sufficiency and The Fairhill Project.

Big May the Fourth shout out to everyone who helped me put together our newest perk, Smuggler’s Haul! There are 25 of these sets available, just like with Blue Box Special, and yup, includes a $10 gift card to LuxuryLaneSoap.com

I am trying very hard to expand our vegetable knowledge. A friend of mine filps her cookies for Brussels sprouts so I thought I would try and make them. I did a very forgiving roasted recipe with bacon. How could the kids not love sprouts and swine?

Amazing, right?!! Trent and Starla did not think so. But, they ate them without audibly complaining although they never once ran out of (adorable) grossed-out faces during the entire meal. While I would typically find this extremely disrespectful, I sort of agreed brussels sprouts weren’t the best thing in the entire world…

After they cleared their plates, I thanked them for not being assholes about eating something they didn’t like and we sat outside and watched the birds and ate ice cream. The real reason why we made it through the meal.

Update!LuxuryLaneSoap.com is under LIVE CONSTRUCTION right now!! I will be releasing limited quantities of items and putting raw material stock on sale to raise money for The Lane Laboratory. The next few weeks are going to be extremely hectic and insane, if you have any product requests, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to let you know if I have the materials on hand!

Another Update! WE HAVE REACHED 25% OF OUR FUNDING GOAL!! I seriously can not even begin to express how amazed I am by all of you. Thank you!

It is finally happening!! Right now I am scaling back LuxuryLaneSoap.com as I prepare to rebuild my studio. That studio I found waaaaaay back in 2010. It’s time you guys. And I’m so freaking excited.

Luxury Lane Soap has finally reached the point of limited growth. I simply can not grow past this point without something changing. The demand is there, you guys keep cheering me on and I’ve hit the point where I honestly can not do this by myself anymore.

For the last six months I have been considering A) Hiring remote online help to better meet customer inquiries and basic site editing. B) Hiring an amazing designer to finally take over the website so I can play in production, like I love. C) Build my studio.

After breaking so many hearts getting people excited about being able to hire I hit a huge wall and realized I can’t grow. I am already producing at an unsustainable rate. In 2010 I talked about loving what you do in abundance and reflecting back on that, I’m happy I still love what I do! I just didn’t expect you guys would love it so much, too!

In 2005 I started making soap. I’m not even really sure how it happened but my husband and I had just gotten married and later moved to Las Vegas. I was interviewed back in 2008 for the Las Vegas Review journal, which sparked a lot of interest and I just rolled with it. My son was born with this skin condition where his skin erupts and bleeds so it helped I was already researching ingredients and raw materials. My creativity just sparked and it never stopped. When you have so many things line up at the exact same time, you never really are sure WHY something happened. I just know it felt right and so I stuck with it.

In 2009 my Fight Club soap went viral and not even six months later I was hit with another viral product, Solo in Carbonite. A few cease and desist orders later and a couple of head butts with some corporations, I find that I’m still standing. I’ve sold at big conventions and I’ve done the famous people thing but right now, this very moment, giving Luxury Lane Soap her home is all that matters.

It’s time for this to come full circle, to go back to obsessively researching and creating. To having shelves and shelves of aging organic soap from scratch. To eventually having a color booth for mixing pigments. An area to blend and age my fragrance oils. Proper storage for my hundreds of molds!

I am currently at over 350 products with over 1 million color and fragrance options. Each and every last item is made one at a time. I don’t want space to store inventory. I want a space to make things…so many things. I am not looking for wholesale vendors or drop shipping, I am looking for customers I can write letters to and develop products for. Fun Fact, over half of my products are just things I make for my friends. And that is what I want.